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Underground cables can produce higher electromagnetic fields directly above them than an overhead line. The majority of cable failures on distribution system are caused by defects in the cable accessories. Nowadays, significant research has been carried out worldwide into examining whether electricity, and in particular, the presence of electric and magnetic fields have an adverse impact on health, especially the occurrence of cancer and childhood leukemia. The purpose of this paper is to optimize the electric field distribution in underground cable accessories. This reduces the impact of the harmful effects of the fields on living beings and humans.

Cable terminations and joints are designed to eliminate the stress concentration at the termination screen to avoid the breakdown of the cable and high values of electric field at these points. Any improvement in the cable termination and joints construction is of great interest. There are several methods for the solution of electric field distribution. These can be summarized as analytical, experimental, free-hand field mapping, analogue methods and numerical methods. In this paper cable accessories are modeled by using multilayer dielectric system and very thin deflector’s cones.

This model includes specific insulators design and smart choice of electrodes position. Stress-grading nonlinear materials in form of tapes and tubes were used with much success. In order to optimize the cable joint parameters, two criteria were monitored – total electric field magnitude and magnitude of the tangential component. More than 30 percent is reduced impact of cables on the environment.

In order to investigate the accuracy of the applied numerical model, various configurations of the cable accessories are studied. The first time is applied new Hybrid Boundary Elements Method on the protection of the environment.

The case will help learners to analyse how effective handling of an extended marketing mix of 7Ps (product, price, place, promotion, physical evidence, participants and processes) makes a startup profitable in its initial years of inception; understand the significance of the online marketing strategies like digital marketing and social media marketing implemented by firms to attain a competitive edge amongst established local and global competitors; examine the strategic challenges faced by a business enterprise while entering an emerging market; analyse the growth strategies of a startup relative to various market constraints; and propose long-term strategies for sustainable growth for a startup operating in the wearables market.

Founded in 2016, Boat Lifestyle is a Delhi-based Indian startup in fashionable consumer electronics. In the past five years, Boat earned remarkable profits and emerged as one of the most promising startups through its innovative products offerings and promotion. Aiming at its target customer segment, the millennials, it promoted its products through social media marketing such as influencer marketing and brand tie-ins with sports teams and music events. The case focuses on the dynamics of the Indian wearables market that is facing tough competition from global and local players. To ensure continued growth prospects, while maintaining a tight focus on product differentiation, quality, and customer satisfaction, there is a greater need for Boat to rethink its market development and growth strategies regarding new innovations and adopting long-term orientation like diversification and global expansion.

The case aims for teaching business management students at the Undergraduate, Postgraduate, and Executive education level. In addition, the case can be related to the Strategic Management course curriculum and Marketing course curriculum.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy

According to the reviewed literature, in order to build effective and efficient global supply (GS) strategies, multinational companies (MNCs) need to define and implement adequate headquarters' control and follow‐up systems for GS management performance in order to guarantee world supply consistence and alignment. The purpose of this paper is to shed some light on how key variables affect GS headquarters‐subsidiary control systems and their complementary behaviours across culturally similar business units.

Multiple case study methodology, with a sample including seven Italian MNCs, has expanded their operations to the Mercosur area (Latin America's Southern Common Market) and designed to guarantee theoretical replication in the analysis of the empirical evidence.

It was found that, although cultural similarities strongly influence MNCs' GS headquarters‐subsidiary control systems, other factors, such as purchasing and globalization sourcing strategy centralization and globalization process evolution, lead companies to implement complementary formal control systems that are consistent with the sharply personalized profile set by cultural proximity.

In order to expand and deepen these conclusions, further research will be necessary to validate these findings in a wider sample, including companies from various countries of origin and destination. In any case, a longitudinal study could help to shed some light on the evolution of headquarters‐subsidiary relationships within global sourcing strategies.

The paper enables better understanding of the impact of and interactions between key driving factors in GS headquarters‐subsidiary control systems in cases of strong cultural similarities through a multi‐case sample study.

Considering the problem that the high recognition rate of deep learning requires the support of mass data, this study aims to propose an insulating fault identification method based on small data set convolutional neural network (CNN).

Because of the chaotic characteristics of partial discharge (PD) signals, the equivalent transformation of the PD signal of unit power frequency period is carried out by phase space reconstruction to derive the chaotic features. At the same time, geometric, fractal, entropy and time domain features are extracted to increase the volume of feature data. Finally, the combined features are constructed and imported into CNN to complete PD recognition.

The results of the case study show that the proposed method can realize the PD recognition of small data set and make up for the shortcomings of the methods based on CNN. Also, the 1-CNN built in this paper has better recognition performance for four typical insulation faults of cable accessories. The recognition performance is improved by 4.37% and 1.25%, respectively, compared with similar methods based on support vector machine and BPNN.

In this paper, a method of insulation fault recognition based on CNN with small data set is proposed, which can solve the difficulty to realize insulation fault recognition of cable accessories and deep data mining because of insufficient measure data.

The year 2013-14 was very significant for Raychem RPG Ltd (RRL) - a joint venture between RPG group, India and TE Connectivity, USA. The sales were looking up and order book was promising. Newly restructured units were working well and business in new segments was picking up. There were several initiatives undertaken by the CEO in last five years of his tenure. His team had achieved the desired stability and turnaround was successful. A high-growth future in a slowing global economic scenario had to be converted into a more profitable opportunity. However, he faced several questions. Was the strategic transformation journey that he embarked on four years ago complete? Could he have done something different? Which were the areas where the next focus should be? Did RRL have the required competences to succeed in those areas? How would RRL manage the changing expectations of the two JV partners?

Fort Fibre Optics Ltd are introducing a new range of flexible fibrescopes.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the process by which El Sewedy Company in Egypt decided to expand internationally by examining several modes of entry and choosing the best choice to expand in Russia and Kazakhstan.

The authors did several market analyses for each company to discover the external and internal environments. In addition, they weighted the advantages and disadvantages of each mode of entry to decide on the best mode to enter Russia and Kazakhstan.

The results confirm that the expansion for El Sewedy is challenging whether in Russia or Kazakhstan. Currently, El Sewedy's strategy is to deal through distributors to minimize risk; these distributors are mostly working in Kazakhstan given their easy connections and access there. The best solution for El Sewedy to expand is to trade high voltage and medium voltage cables in Kazakhstan as well as the trade of high voltage cables in Russia. Whether it is trading, exporting or a joint venture, El Sewedy's intentions are clear in its willingness to access the Russian and Kazakhstani markets, due to their richness and most of all their location as a central trade area in the region.

The comparison between Russia and Kazakhstan may appear very similar since both countries share almost the same circumstances and environment. Therefore, some of the information may be repeated twice to analyze both countries.

The results of this case study ensure the importance of analyzing the different modes of entry and doing a cost‐benefit analysis before deciding on how to expand in foreign market. Since circumstances and environments vary between markets, it is crucial to know all the details of the country in order to succeed in expanding in this foreign market.

This study explains a common case that happens in Egypt and every country whenever a company decides to expand. Usually, a company prefers a certain mode of entry over the other, but what is necessary is to follow what El Sewedy did, which is to evaluate all alternatives equally then decide on the best choice.

In high voltage direct current cable systems, cable joints are known as the least reliable components due to the use of multiple dielectrics. Resulting from the electric field and temperature depending conductivity of the different dielectrics, field enhancement at critical areas, e.g. triple points, may result in accelerated aging and the failure of the component. To reduce the stress, different field grading techniques are applied. The purpose of this study is to investigate different grading techniques for cable joints. Different shapes of the electrode and a varying nonlinear conductivity of field grading materials (FGM) are used for the simulation of the electric field.

Coupled electro-thermal field simulations are applied for different joint geometries, to obtain the stationary electric field. Electric field simulations in cable joint using geometric and nonlinear field grading techniques are shown.

Using the geometric field grading, the shape of the stress cone determines the field values in critical areas (triple points). High stress reduction is obtained for a certain curvature of the stress cone. For the nonlinear stress control, materials with a higher conductivity in comparison to the cable and the joint material are used. A field reduction is obtained by increasing the total conductivity. On the other hand, this is also increasing the insulation losses within the total FGM. More applicable is the decrease of the switching field or the increase of nonlinearity, which is only locally increase the conductivity and the insulation losses. Furthermore, simulations results show that an approximately constant field reduction is obtained, if the nonlinearity is above a certain threshold.

This study is restricted to a field dependency of FGM only. For impulse voltages, high temperature and electric conductivity values my result in a thermal runaway. Furthermore, only direct current field grading techniques are studied.

The field grading of cable joints, using geometric and nonlinear techniques, is analyzed. A comparison between the electric field, by varying the curvature of the ground stress cone or the FGM conductivity constants in a complex joint geometry is novel. With its effect on the electric fields, general requirements for the geometry (geometric field grading) or the values of the FGM constants (nonlinear field grading) are defined to obtain a sufficient field grading.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an effective methodology for implementing lean manufacturing strategies and a leanness evaluation metric using continuous performance measurement (CPM).

Based on five lean principles, a systematic lean implementation methodology for manufacturing organizations has been proposed. A simplified leanness evaluation metric consisting of both efficiency and effectiveness attributes of manufacturing performance has been developed for continuous evaluation of lean implementation. A case study to validate the proposed methodology has been conducted and proposed CPM metric has been used to assess the manufacturing leanness.

Proposed methodology is able to systematically identify manufacturing wastes, select appropriate lean tools, identify relevant performance indicators, achieve significant performance improvement and establish lean culture in the organization. Continuous performance measurement matrices in terms of efficiency and effectiveness are proved to be appropriate methods for continuous evaluation of lean performance.

Effectiveness of the method developed has been demonstrated by applying it in a real life assembly process. However, more tests/applications will be necessary to generalize the findings.

Results show that applying the methods developed, managers can successfully identify and remove manufacturing wastes from their production processes. By improving process efficiency, they can optimize their resource allocations. Manufacturers now have a validated step by step methodology for successfully implementing lean strategies.

According to the authors' best knowledge, this is the first known study that proposed a systematic lean implementation methodology based on lean principles and continuous improvement techniques. Evaluation of performance improvement by lean strategies is a critical issue. This study develops a simplified leanness evaluation metric considering both efficiency and effectiveness attributes and integrates it with the lean implementation methodology.

It was no easy task to find a successor to Lord McFadzean, who was recognized not only as a figurehead for his own company but of industry generally. But British Insulated Calender's Cables are confident that they have found the right man in William Fraser. An electrical engineer by training, Fraser played a key role in the development of Scottish Cables—later to become part of BICC—and his work in building up the present company's overseas operations has earned him a Queen's award for export services. Ken Gooding reports.